Terry & Frances Watson 2008

We have just returned from a three-week visit to Zimbabwe, staying with John and Celia in their house in Chegutu. We were able to arrange a lift from Blantyre in Malawi, by road, which enabled us to take in medicines and food, which proved invaluable in the present difficult situation.

We found Chegutu as poor as we had expected with hardly any food in the shops and what is available is priced in US dollars. Last week a 12.5kg bag of maize was selling at US$15. Only those who are able to get access to foreign currency are able to buy food. The Zimbabwean dollar changed from 1million to the $US dollar to 250million while we were there.

Some were selling fruit and vegetables they had been able to grow or acquire. There is quite a bartering system going on in places.

One reason for us to be in Zimbabwe was to teach the second module of a series for

local pastors and church workers. We had 13 candidates to begin with but lost two with ill health, both Cholera related. The Bible Training Centre for Pastors course has 10 courses each with it’s own manual. The plan is to run 3 courses a year with students finishing after 18 months. Most of this work rested on Terry but he had input from John, Ebenezer and Frances. We had to condense the material to half of the recommended time so this was quite a challenge. But it was fun interacting with the students. Students return back to their homes and have to complete at least 35 hours of course work. The ‘homework’ now rests with John Valentine to mark!

The cholera outbreak was not expected as part of our agenda but once it struck we became very personally involved. One of our students, Sebastian, went down with the disease very quickly and within 3 hours of feeling unwell became seriously dehydrated, vomiting as soon as he tried to drink and had watery diarrhoea. His eyes were sunken and starring and we thought we were going to lose him. Fortunately, he was brought to John and Celia’s house by his sister asking for help and we were able to give him rehydrate fluid and doxycycline capsules. He was then taken back to his mother’s house in Chegutu’s township with instructions to sip the fluid every few minutes and continue with the drugs. By the following day 50 local people had died. The M.S.F. (French health organisation) came in and set up a cholera clinic in Chegutu. They were refused entrance at first but had photos to prove how bad the situation was. People were being taken in wheelbarrows to the clinic because they were so sick they couldn’t stand. The clinic soon became full and at least 150 people were lying around the perimeter fence with drips attached to their arms.

Many of these died quickly from lack of fluid being given in time. People were not allowed in the clinic unless they couldn’t walk. Bodies were being piled up in groups according to the day they died, and relatives had to identify them and take them for burial. Sebastian was taken in, and we started to pray. We were able to contact people in Eltham (our home church) and asked them to join us in prayer. Sebastian pulled through and on Sunday we were able to visit him in the township. His area was the worst hit. People had lost friends and relatives all around them and they were very scared. M.S.F. brought in water tablets and soap and sprayed some of the houses. There was a lot of health education being given out continuously. Cholera doesn’t need to be a killer, but the infrastructure has broken down and the sewage was getting into the well water. Added to the fact that people are malnourished, and many have Aids, the prognosis was bleak.

Frances was able to open a clinic on the farm for 3 mornings a week and treated about 500 people. We took in some rehydrate sachets and were able to get more locally. After that we made up our own sugar and salt solution.

Please pray for these people but above all for John and Celia as they tirelessly give out each day. Please also keep this confidential we certainly do not want to put the work at risk. We value your continual prayers.

We were blessed by being able to speak at four local churches and hold Bible Studies with ladies groups, Elsie’s home group, and an Afrikaans home group. Many of you will know that Ian and Elsie are in the UK in Exeter with their son. Ian had to undergo a serious operation for cancer diagnosed while on a family visit and will be under treatment for a few months.

We are very well, being fed on fresh vegetables from John and Celia’s Garden!

We also visited the old farmhouse that was burnt down. Maybe the good thing about that situation is that no one wants to take on a farm with no house!

The rain was another cause for prayer. John was able to get hold of a tractor and driver to plough the fields at Ameva and then to plant about 20 hectares of seed. After a week the rains came, and everyone was excited. A lot of time is spent trying to get food for the workers. The packs for the pastors are coming in again from South Africa. Thousands of pounds of Ameva project money is being spent on food and medicines so we do appreciate your continuing support. There is a need for repairs to farm equipment and vehicles most of which lack spare parts.

John and Celia are encouraged as they see the hand of the Lord. Please pray for them to be kept in good health and to have the strength to carry on day by day. They are aware that people are afraid to visit but are encouraged when they do. We do thank the Lord as well that they had the foresight to build a house in Chegutu, just in time to move in.

Communications are very difficult and emails erratic. Many times, the electricity is off and the phones are not working. As and when they can, they will continue to send out their weekly newsletter. If it is not received it is because it has been impossible to send.

Terry & Frances Watson 20th December 2008

Eric & Ros Taylor

Getting off the aircraft in Salisbury Zimbabwe (now Harare) was likened to going into an oven, but it was October, usually the hottest month of the year. Salisbury in those days was a very clean city, “the Sunshine City” as it was called. After a few days in the city we left as a team (John Valentine, Mickey Wright, Keith and Christine Kelly) for Hartley (now Chegutu), it was common to see from the road, as you left the city, men in white overalls which I supposed were people playing cricket, only to discover later it was prisoners probably picking up litter.

The people in Zimbabwe we discovered were incredibly friendly, which I contrasted with a recent holiday I had in Austria. We were met by the Christian Marching Church representatives including Bishop Katsande and his number one assistant Pastor Phillip Gobvu, who epitomised this. Similarly we were befriended by ex-colonials who were equally welcoming in Hartley after a few weeks (notably Elsie and Ian Gibson plus family). We noticed that they behaved like the generation of our parents (the 1950’s etiquette) e.g. Men would stand up when a lady entered the room. This still exists today in some circles in Zimbabwe.

John had acquired a Land Rover type vehicle (Chevrolet Nomad) useful for the rough roads out of town, which was ideal, but over the months did acquire the habit of catching fire around the carburetor whereupon, either passenger or driver would leap out and smother the flames with sand or soil.

We frequently travelled on the Bay Horse Road between the town and Ameva Extension Farm, which started as a strip road (two strips of tar down the road where the wheels travelled), later to become a dirt road full of corrugations which shook the Chev Nomad so much that the door handles used to unlatch and the doors fly open. Passengers had to sit holding the door shut with a strap.

The farm itself was a complex of buildings with two main houses and a bungalow all enclosed within high security fences, the main house where we stayed had anti grenade weld mesh sections attached to the walls over the windows. Inside my bedroom was a separate wall, half way up, in front of the window to provide extra protection from any threats, but also useful for changing in the absence of curtains. Each bedroom (there were three) was linked by a dark corridor which, on one occasion, was the hiding place for a puff adder that had crept in, and was curled up waiting to pounce. A quick shout and friendly help was quickly dispatched. In fact there were numerous encounters with snakes, Stan Kearsley chased a black mamba in one of the lofts and survived. He was also being bitten by a dog, on another occasion, at a time when rabies was prevalent. He suffered no harm, choosing to trust God rather than take the medicine, a course of painful injections. Truly God was with us.

On the farm, adapting to the different crops and environment was quite a challenge. The neighbours were very helpful. Mr. Martin Tracey, a wonderful Christian brother who planted our maize. Mr. Peter Cox (who subsequently warmed to the gospel) helped plant the cotton and Mr. Waterfall of Stewart’s chickens supplied day old chicks and advice. We survived in the first year and were able to get organised for subsequent years.

Another challenge was communicating and organising the farm workers, of whom there were ten or twelve, many of them leave me with fond memories, including Wilson the tractor driver, who parked the old Ford 4000 on a large ant hill in order to start it in the morning, failing this it was all hands on deck to push start.

The neighboring farms were venues for outreach on a Sunday afternoon, where we met with enthusiastic congregations eager to hear the gospel. The response was wonderful and an eye-opener to a novice such as me. Sunday mornings involved church at the Scout Hut in Hartley, a wonderful occasion a mixture of African and European worship where God moved on numerous occasions.

After a few months many of the first arrivals returned to the UK, to be replaced by Clare Strickland and Colin Davies from Epsom. Colin headed up the Bible School and Clare taught English to the Bible students.

One of the houses was occupied initially by Agricair, a crop spraying firm that used the airstrip on the farm. We used them to spray the groundnuts. Later on, team members occupied the house after being divided into quarters for Ron and Anna White and Dave and Sue Latham.

We did acquire a dog called Gemma, a Kerry Blue mix, who always alerted us to threats such as snakes or unannounced visitors. He did distinguish himself by attaching himself to a sable antelope’s ear whilst being flung around. The sable had wandered into the yard after having a snare around its leg.

Our whole experience, (my wife Ros came out after several months) was life changing, but such a blessing to be part of a team helping the gospel to go out to a nation fresh from a conflict, bringing the love of God into a divided war torn people, fulfilling the vision that God had given John Valentine.

John Ashcroft

August 1983

Getting to Ameva took a while as I travelled overland from Egypt. I arrived in Chegutu by bus

late at night so rolled out my sleeping back on a bench near the police station – much to the

amusement of people arriving for work while I was still asleep. A call to the farm announced my arrival and the start of many wonderful experiences including:

• Eggs - dozens and dozens of them. My abiding memory is perhaps coming back from selling eggs to the shifts leaving the cotton factory on payday and counting the piles of crumpled banknotes on the dining table. Some blessings are very tangible.

• Snakes – going into the roof space with Stan to deal with a black mamba. I was happy to leave the title of Nimrod the mighty hunter to him as he also dealt with various cobras and puff adders.

• The Gibsons and their wonderful ministry of hospitality – enabling all to experience both rest and belonging underpins true fellowship.

• Starting a school – it was humbling that children would walk far for the opportunity of learning that I felt poorly equipped to provide. Yet good things grow from small beginnings.

But perhaps above all I remember the ways in which John, Celia and others modelled lives of

faith, love and wisdom: faith that inspired action, love that was generous, and wisdom that was

practical and earthy in navigating the challenges and surprises that life can bring.